A rooster crowing at dawn may soothe the soul of this Oliver Ames High School teacher.

He lived on a poultry farm with 4,000 chickens.

But he knows that beauty is in the eye, nose and ear of the beholder. Urbanites, who can sleep through the blare of police sirens and abide the stench of street trash, may recoil at the cacophony and smell of the working farm next door.

Susan Parkou Weinstein

Edmund Hands was raised around farms and was a farmer himself so he embraces those first harbingers of spring.

He loves the sound of clucking chickens, the sight of cows in the pasture and the familiar odor of loamy soil being readied for crops.

A rooster crowing at dawn may soothe the soul of this Oliver Ames High School teacher.

He lived on a poultry farm with 4,000 chickens.

But he knows that beauty is in the eye, nose and ear of the beholder. Urbanites, who can sleep through the blare of police sirens and abide the stench of street trash, may recoil at the cacophony and smell of the working farm next door.

“I know one woman who’s freaked out by animal noises and she lives on a farm,” Hands said.

Clashes between farmers and their neighbors aren’t always resolved peaceably. It doesn’t have to be that way.

To improve relations and ensure that local farms thrive, Hands helped found the Easton Agricultural Commission and drafted the town’s right to farm bylaw.

The goal is to promote local agriculture and regulate disputes between farmers, the town and neighbors.

The bylaw defines a protected “farm” as having at least two acres of land used for commercial agriculture and reaping a minimal annual revenue of $1,000.

A landscaper and agricultural specialist at Flynn’s Farm, Sandstrum said the key is educating the public and asking farmers to consider ways to operate that will also yield better results.

He cites as an example, Sean and Jessica Flynn, who bought an existing Bay Street farm three years. They modernized it. They talked to their neighbors to improve relations. They moved the compost pile away from the property line.

Sandstrum said manure and compost piles could be cultivated and cut dry so they don’t emit odors. Compost should have a sweet milky smell, he says, not the pungent odor often associated with the heaps.

Norton’s Newland emu farm runs a successful composting facility with residential abutters on three sides and treed buffer lines that control most smells and noises.

Owner Earl Willcott said a good compost pile results from the right amount of rain that falls, the balance of “good and bad critters” in the compost and managing it well.

“We pay a lot of attention to the management of it,” he said.

He keeps a windsock flying so he can monitor which way the wind is blowing.

He keeps his cell phone handy to field calls from neighbors about any odor problems. He also gives them priority access to compost to keep them happy.

Another nuisance in burgeoning suburbs are tractors that lumber along the same roads as people rushing to work or racing to buy groceries.

Sandstrum recalls dropping three huge hanging plant baskets off the back of a truck heading to the farmer’s market at Five Corners.

“Some people were annoyed because they couldn’t go 45 miles an hour but others were fascinated to see the local product,” he said.

Sandstrum practices what he preaches when it comes to accommodating the neighbors. His son keeps 13 chickens and a rooster at their Poquanticut Road house.

When a neighbor complained he could hear the hens when he opened his windows, Sandstrum offered to keep the chickens in the coop until 8 a.m.

“When the sun comes up, the roosters crows are muffled,” he said.

Sometimes the solution is changing the rooster breed.

The aggressive Andalusian displays its male dominance by crowing loudly while the Sussex rooster is more docile.

Even pig farms can be nuisance odor-free.

Residents along tony Nottingham Drive in Raynham used to complain about the horrible smells wafting toward their properties from an abutting pig farm on White Street.

But pigs are clean by nature and don’t smell if they are not crammed into a small sty and their slop is clean, Hands said.

A messy farm or a big dairy farm with dilapidated silos and barns can be eyesores to neighbors with manicured lawns and beautiful homes. The reality is that some farmers don’t have the time or money for building maintenance when they have to take care of a herd of cows.

One concern of abutters that appears to be a relic of the past is the use of toxic fertilizers and harsh pesticides in farm fields.

The advent of organic fertilizers and integrated pest management that discourages infestations have replaced more toxic materials and allayed the fears of neighbors.

Guinea hens can also eat their body weight in ticks and other insects but this natural approach to pest control has a downside.

“They are insanely noisy,” Hands jokes.

The bottom line is that homeowners should be able to enjoy their properties without flies from manure, odors from compost and the excessive noise of farm machinery.

They can and should be more tolerant of the farmer next door. Local farming is an asset to the community that is often hindered by increased subdivision traffic, trash, trespassing pets and trivial complaints from neighbors.

Hands recommends a few simple peacekeeping measures. He says farmers should open up farm stands or offer the neighbors a tour of the property.

For farmers, the issue is sustainability, Hands said.

“They want to have farms they can pass on to their children and grandchildren just like the old days,” he said.